StumbleUpon’s Cody Simms To Depart, Replaced By New VP Of Product David Marks

Content discovery service StumbleUpon is getting a new head of product.

Chief Product Officer Cody Simms told me he will be transitioning to an advisory role with the company at the end of August. Meanwhile, David Marks (pictured), co-founder of content recommendation engine Lumia (where he served as both CTO and CEO, though not at the same time), joined StumbleUpon as its new vice president of product on July 29.

Simms left his VP position at Yahoo to join StumbleUpon about a year ago — a switch that also involved moving from Los Angeles to San Francisco. When I emailed to ask why he’s leaving, he said:

StumbleUpon has a great mission and team, an innovative business model and is solving an incredibly interesting problem. My family and I recently made the decision, however, to return to family and friends in Los Angeles. As a StumbleUpon management team, we’ve worked together to ensure a clean transition during this time, and we’re excited to say that David Marks joined StumbleUpon just recently to take on the the role of VP Product.

A StumbleUpon spokesperson told me that despite the slightly different titles, Marks is taking on Simms’ role, which involves overseeing product management and design for all consumer and ad products. (When Simms first joined the company, he was also vice president of product.)

“We are excited to have someone with David’s personalization experience on board,” the company said.

StumbleUpon says it now has more than 30 million registered users and 100,000 advertisers.

For those of you who need a refresher on its somewhat complicated history, StumbleUpon was founded in 2001, acquired by eBay in 2007, then bought back and spun out by the original founders (with support from investors) in 2009. Co-founder Garrett Camp stepped down from the CEO role last year, and in January new CEO Mark Bartels announced that he was cutting 30 percent of staff with an aim of getting the company to profitability.